1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a reminder system primarily but not exclusively designed to be used in a domestic environment to remind a housewife or other personnel when certain food supplies or domestic products need to be replenished through the pictorial presentation of food or product categories being removably disposed at a location indicative of adequate supply, or alternately, inadequate supply.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typically in the conventional household, common supplies such as food products, cleaning goods, etc. are replenished on a periodic basis when the person responsible visits the local supermarket or like facility. Also, it is common practice for the responsible person to make out "grocery lists" in order to determine what products or goods are required. The accuracy of such an inventory is, of course, important in order that certain goods or products not be inadvertently deleted from the needs of a given household.
It is of course recognized that the compilation of such lists is tedious, time consuming and frequently less than efficient since it is easy to overlook many goods or products which are not frequently used without some type of reminder being given to the responsible party compiling the aforementioned list.
While accurate and adequate inventory replenishment is a convenience in the proper functioning of a household, it frequently is an absolute necessity in the efficient and economical operation of certain businesses. Therefore, both domestically and industrially there is an obvious need in the prior art for some type of reminder system which efficiently informs the responsible party or parties that a given category of product need be replenished. While inventory control of the type set forth above has long been a recognized need in many businesses, there has been relatively little development for a similar type of reminder or inventory system utilized in the household.
Reminder or "scheduling" devices exist in the prior art in an attempt to overcome many of the problems as set forth above. Such devices are represented in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,224,128; to Steward; Dean et al., 3,839,130; and Steward, 3,670,435. The above-set forth patents relate primarily to scheduling devices, but do show the broad concept of magnetic or equivalently structured indicator elements mounted on some type of display face which is categorized to present a means of adequately controlling work flow, scheduling, inventory, etc.
While operable for their intended functions, certain prior art devices generally of the type shown in the aforementioned patent, still suffer from an inherent problem generally associated with the manual compilation of information, primarily because there is generally not sufficient pictorial representation to serve as an immediate reminder of a given category of products. The structural components generally common in control or scheduling devices in the prior art are "non-pictorial" or not specifically representative of the category of goods or products represented.
Accordingly, there is a need for a reminder system capable of not only clearly indicating the relative status of the supply of a given category of goods or products, but also which may serve as a reminder of a given category itself, thereby eliminating the necessity of taking a physical inventory of the various goods or products commonly replenished on a periodic basis.